Osita Okechukwu, the director-general of Voice of Nigeria, VON, has said some deeply divisive and ethnic profiling comments made by Femi Fani-Kayode and Bayo Onanuga do not reflect the position of president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu on national discourse.
Following the conclusion of Saturday’s Governorship election in Lagos State, Onanuga warned Igbos against “interfering” with politics in the state.
According to him, ”2023 should be the last time Igbos interfere in Lagos politics”, adding that the state belongs to Yoruba.
Fani-Kayode, a former Aviation Minister has also been very active on social media making repulsive comments and ethnic profiling which have even come to the knowledge of the British High Commission in Nigeria.
Reacting to the development, Okechukwu said Fani-Kayode and Onanuga spoke as private citizens and are not speaking for Tinubu.
Appearing on Arise TV on Tuesday, Okechukwu condemned the comments by the spokespersons of Tinubu and APC, saying that he has lived in the South West for twenty-nine years without encountering any issues with the Yorubas.
According to Okechukwu, the inciting and tribal sentiments being shared by these people does not reflect the position of Tinubu, who he, [Osita] claimed to know very well.
“For somebody like myself, I lived 35 years in the North and 29 years in the South East and five years in the South West. Will I today start condensing a Northerner? The paper that brought me to Abuja was signed by a Yoruba man.
“So I’ll now castigate the Yorubas? Or the Hausa people who are my close friends? It’s condemnable that instead of telling people what our government has achieved…they don’t even know what we’ve achieved. Instead of canvassing it they’re engaging in premodal sentiments. It’s very unfortunate.
“I can’t support that. Yesterday, Obama went to Ghana and today Kamala Harris has gone to Ghana. Let’s begin to look back, why are we being spurned? If you spurn yourself you are about to be spurned. So I’ll never encourage the rascality. The president-elect that I know does not reflect such statements.
“I don’t think that’s what they’re saying…after all if you know my friend Fani-Kayode he came from the PDP. So, these are some of those people who transferred[from the PDP to APC]. So, I don’t think his statements reflect Asiwaju’s own position.”